If you’re hunting desperately for a way to get your brand and business noticed, look no further than the internet. Most small businesses don’t have nearly the advertising budget required to get them seen on television, billboards or in a brick and mortar store. But with only a strong work ethic, the desire and dedication to network and a bit of creativity you can generate a storm of publicity online. One of the best ways for a business to get noticed is through creating a cool and catchy infographic. If you’re unfamiliar, these are simple graphics that pair strong visuals with quality information, revealing a fact that the consumer might not have known, or shining a light on some important new figures. If done correctly, your infographic could take off in a major way and end up shared virally amongst millions of people. If done poorly, your infographic will die a quick and quiet death, wasting your efforts for very little return. So here are five ‘do’s’ of effective infographic design, to insure that doesn’t happen.
First and foremost, do make sure your design is clear and easily understood. It’s easy to get caught up in your creativity and end up just wanting to put everything and the kitchen sink onto the page. But this infographic isn’t an opportunity for you to prove the length and breadth of your design skills. The graphics should quickly communicate what the infographic is trying to say in a clear manner. It should support the facts and data without overwhelming them. And it shouldn’t be cluttered or confused. Make it clean, attractive and colorful, so people want to share it with others.
Also on the design side, do look for ways to bring culturally relevant markers to bear in your visuals. There are some images that people just inherently understand. A person of middle school age of higher sees a pie chart and basically knows what that means. The same goes for a graph. But if you really want to capture attention and interest beyond a quick glance, look to draw in some creative references. Perhaps instead of a graph you can represent the data as different horses in a race. Maybe it can be a basketball player shooting hoops. Perhaps dollar signs, television sets or some other clear icon can be brought to bear. And often you can use relative icon size to communicate difference much more quickly than through a pie chart or graph.
On the content side, you must provide value for your readers. That means the data you are sharing can never be strictly promotional. Perhaps you are trying to draw attention to a point that underlines the need to use your company, and that’s fine. But whatever data you are using should be current, and represent something that’s not common knowledge. If you think you can just rehash data that was used in prior infographics and get away with it, you’ll be sure to find some seriously diminishing results.
Another content ‘do’ is to always make sure you tell the truth. People are relentless on the internet, and if you are caught in a lie you will never hear the end of it. Do make sure you tirelessly research the data you are about to present. It’s got to stand up to close scrutiny. Some people think you can get away with any sort of spin on the internet, and they might be right. But you don’t want to add to misinformation. Find data that truly backs up the point you are going to make and allow people to come to their own determinations.
Finally, do make your infographic easy to share. If you want to make your mark on theinfographic world, you’ve got to help your work become viral. Every infographic should have an embedded link, and a one-click option for sharing. You can rely on the platform for this, or you can build it in yourself. Program the infographic so that a consumer can click on it and open up access for one-click sharing across all of the social networks. It will always be worth your extra time and effort.